Tag Archives: Vital Flame

This is a Druid healing guide for the Firelands raid instance. Though it’s written from a 25-man perspective, most of the tips should apply to 10s as well.

Baleroc is a healer test. There are buffs you need to manage in order to increase the power of your heals to keep up with the tanks’ massively inflated health pools.

If you’re not familiar with the general tactics of the fight, check out the Icy Veins guide.

Debuffs you want to be aware of:

Torment – This debuff appears on the person standing closest to a Shard of Torment. It causes stacking shadow damage every second. There are 2 shards up at a time, so this debuff will be on 2 people.

Buffs you will get that you want to be aware of:

Vital Spark – When you cast a direct heal on someone being damaged by Torment you gain stacks of Vital Spark (1 application per 3 Torment stacks on the person).

Vital Flame – When you cast a direct heal on someone with the Blaze of Glory buff (the tank) your healing on them will be increased by 5% per stack of Vital Spark you have. This lasts for 15 seconds.

Only direct heals will cause these buffs to trigger: Regrowth, Nourish, Healing Touch and Swiftmend. HoTs will not trigger them. You want to get your Vital Spark stacks as high as possible so you can keep up with the tank’s rising health pool and damage taken. It is very important to note that while you have Vital Flame, you cannot build more stacks of Vital Spark. Vital Flame needs to run out before you can build spark stacks again. Casting a direct heal on the tank will refresh the duration of Vital Flame. I use Beru’s Power Auras to track these two buffs.

Since healing strategies for this fight can vary, I’m going to share the one we use in Apotheosis:

We use 6 healers who get paired up for healing assignments.

We use 2 tanks, one who tanks most of the encounter and one who only taunts for Decimating Blade.

For the first shard the healers rotate assignments every 15 seconds – this is so everyone gets some stacks of Vital Spark at the beginning in case the boss uses Decimating Blade at the start.

After the first Shard we switch to 30 second rotations.

The healer rotation always follows the same order: Healer group 1 heals tanks, then melee Torment targets, then ranged Torment targets (repeat). Healer group 2 heals melee, then ranged, then tanks. Healer group 3 heals ranged, then tanks, then melee.

The Fight :

The toughest things about this encounter is keeping on top of your healing assignment as it rotates and keeping an eye on your Vital Spark and Flame buffs.

Before the pull, cast a direct heal to trigger Harmony and stack Lifebloom and Rejuvenation on the tank who will be pulling.

When the shard spawns make sure you are not standing near it. There will be a purple glow in the spot it’s going to appear. If you’re near it, move. Getting the Tormented debuff will reduce your healing done by 50% and make things very difficult.

Healing subsequent Torment targets

Your goal should be to build as many Vital Spark stacks as possible without going oom.

Roll a Rejuvenation on the Torment target.

Chain-cast Nourish. As the Torment stacks get higher you may need to cast Healing Touch or Regrowth. Use Swiftmend for a quick 3 sparks when the person gets to 12 stacks.

You can refresh your HoTs on the tank while healing Torment, but do not cast any direct heals on them. Stick to your assignment.

Healing the Tank

When you’re switching from healing Torment targets to healing the tanks, you want to get a direct heal on the tank as fast as possible to trigger Vital Flame. Use Swiftmend if it’s off cooldown or Regrowth to do this.

The healing on the main tank isn’t too demanding. Just keep up your HoTs, and chain-cast Nourish or Healing Touch.

Healing the Decimating Strike tank is where things get tougher. Roll a Rejuv and chain-cast Healing Touch, along with Swiftmend when it’s available or Regrowth if you want a faster heal. Be ready to use Nature’s Swiftness here if you have it. Pop Tree of Life for the second time during Decimation Blade.

When you’re getting ready to switch back to healing Torment, keep a very close eye on your Vital Flame timer. When the time left on the buff is down to 2 or 3 seconds stop casting direct heals on the tanks. Just refresh your HoTs and get ready to swap targets. If you have the Vital Flame buff you will not be able to build Vital Spark stacks.

Other spells

Since there should only ever be 3 people taking damage at a time Wild Growth and Tranquility don’t have much use in this fight.